 |
 |
Are External USB drives REALLY limited to 500GB-ish partitions?
|
|
|
|
|
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2001
Status:
Offline
|
|
Hi,
I've just bought an external USB Maxtor 1.5TB hard drive and can't get it to format on my G5 PowerMac or my MacBook Pro (both on 10.5.5). I can't remember the exact error but it's something about the file system (tried both journaled and non-journaled). The drive formats fine under BootCamp on the MBP.
Whilst googling I came across this reply to another similar post - this reply was dated 28 Oct 2008, so pretty recent:
* * *
This problem is NOT a USB problem. Weather your using USB or Firewire, 10.4 and 10.5 will NOT format a volume larger than about 500G. If you have a machine running 10.3 it will work just fine. But if you want to format a drive larger than 500g (using 10.4 or 10.5) you need to break it up into 2 or even 3 partitions, then it will work. Of course who wants to do that? APPLE SHOULD JUST FIX IT!!
* * *
Now, is this really the case? If so, how rubbish is that?
The other thing I read (over at xlr8yourmac.com) is that some of the new Seagate 1.5TB drives (which is what is inside my Maxtor unit) have a bug in their firmware causing a few problems.
Anyone have any feedback or advice?
Many thanks,
Matthew
|
|
Early 2008 Mac Pro (8 x 2.8), original Core Duo 2.0GHz MacBook Pro
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moderator  Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status:
Offline
|
|
No, USB is limited to 2 TB per volume. A number of devices which offer USB connectivity inherit this limit (e. g. the Drobo with USB interface).
|
|
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2001
Status:
Offline
|
|
Hmmm... I wonder where that leaves me with my problem then 
Thank you for the reply
Matthew
|
|
Early 2008 Mac Pro (8 x 2.8), original Core Duo 2.0GHz MacBook Pro
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Los Angeles
Status:
Offline
|
|
Where in the world did you find that claim about Tiger and Leopard only being able to format 500GB volumes? Whoever wrote that is mentally deficient.
|
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2001
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by Big Mac 
Where in the world did you find that claim about Tiger and Leopard only being able to format 500GB volumes? Whoever wrote that is mentally deficient.
Hi Big Mac,
Last post in these comments:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/bac...disk-seriously
Looks like I'm going to have to try the partition trick and see how I get on.
|
|
Early 2008 Mac Pro (8 x 2.8), original Core Duo 2.0GHz MacBook Pro
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status:
Offline
|
|
I had the same problem with a 750GB Maxtor, couldn't format it with Disk Utility. Returned it for a 750GB drive and enclosure which worked fine. Sounds like Maxtor is doing something weird that OS X barfs on.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Admin Emeritus  Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Status:
Offline
|
|
I just set up a brand new 1.5TB Seagate hard drive over USB just fine.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Admin Emeritus Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by OreoCookie
No, USB is limited to 2 TB per volume. A number of devices which offer USB connectivity inherit this limit (e. g. the Drobo with USB interface).
A questionable claim. From what I've read online, it's more likely that Windows limits USB to 2TB, but not USB itself.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Moderator Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status:
Offline
|
|
According to what I've read, USB was blamed for the capacity limit.
Originally Posted by Macworld
USB is also to blame for another limitation: regardless of the size of the individual mechanisms, volumes can be no larger than 2TB, though the chances that you’ll need to back up a file larger than 2TB are slim.
AFAIK Windows XP has a 2 TB/volume limit, so perhaps there is a subtle interplay between the two (e. g. hardware manufacturers not speccing beyond 2 TB).
|
|
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally Posted by tooki
A questionable claim. From what I've read online, it's more likely that Windows limits USB to 2TB, but not USB itself.
Originally Posted by OreoCookie
AFAIK Windows XP has a 2 TB/volume limit, so perhaps there is a subtle interplay between the two (e. g. hardware manufacturers not speccing beyond 2 TB).
Windows XP supports volumes up to 2^32-1 clusters, which is 256TB with 64KB clusters. MBRs impose a 2TB limit, but dynamic or GPT volumes can go larger.
I read something about USB getting the 2TB limit from using the same addressing that SCSI used but I can't find it now.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Mar 2001
Status:
Offline
|
|
Turns out all you guys were right and he was wrong.
Also turns out to be PEBKAC my end, I'm ashamed to say!
I was trying to partition as Master Boot Record (or something similar) - as soon as I changed this to GUID it worked.
All is now good in the little world I call Matthew.
Thanks again for the replies.
Matthew
|
|
Early 2008 Mac Pro (8 x 2.8), original Core Duo 2.0GHz MacBook Pro
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mac Elite
Join Date: Jan 2004
Status:
Offline
|
|
Was the drive from PC World? I saw a pile of them in my local branch the other day. 1.5TB for £69 is pretty good value.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 
|
|
|
Forum Rules
|
|
|
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top
